Organizing Student Work for Portfolios

Hi everyone! I'm super excited to link up for another Bright Ideas Blog Hop! I love getting new ideas that make teaching easier.

Since I teach special education students, I need to keep student work to show how students are or are not progressing. I've tried different ways to organize all their work for their student portfolios. For a long time, I used 3-ring binders. But they're bulky and honestly sometimes I don't want the work 3-hole punched.

I finally found this super easy (why didn't I think of it before) system just using a simple crate from Target.

For each student, I use 4 cheap folders. One has their name on it and includes personal information like copies of their IEPs, their last IEP progress report, their contact information, and other random papers. I make a folder for each area that I'm keeping data. For me, that is reading, writing, and math.

This makes keeping work super easy and makes filing for each student super fast. Once a quarter is complete, I take all of the work our and put it in a folder labeled __ quarter. What I also like about this system is that it's super easy to change out if you have students who move or come in. Since only one folder has the student's name on it, I can either white out the name and reuse it or throw it out.

There you go! It's not genius by any means but I wish I had thought of it a few years ago.

Next up, you'll want to hop on over to Amanda from Around the Kampfire's blog to see how she makes the most of anchor charts in her classroom.